Learn Hardcore Finnish: Opettaja puhuu ääneen luokassa. - The teacher speaks aloud in the classroom.

Removing the -a/-ä ending:
- puhua → puhu-
Adding the personal ending for the subject:
- 1st person singular: puhun (I speak)
- 2nd person singular: puhut (you speak)
- 3rd person singular: puhuu (he/she/the teacher speaks)

So the -u of the stem (puhu-) and the -u of the 3rd person ending come together and form -uu. That’s why it is puhuu, not puhu.

What tense or aspect does puhuu express? Is it “speaks” or “is speaking”?

Finnish present tense covers both English simple present and present continuous.

So Opettaja puhuu can mean:

The teacher speaks (general habit)
The teacher is speaking (right now)

Which English translation you choose depends on context, not on a different Finnish verb form.

Why is it opettaja and not opettajan? What case is opettaja in?

Opettaja is in the nominative case, which is the basic dictionary form and is used for the subject of the sentence.

Opettaja puhuu… = The teacher speaks… (subject in nominative)

Opettajan is genitive and would generally mean the teacher’s (showing possession) or be used in some other constructions:

opettajan kirja = the teacher’s book
Näin opettajan. = I saw the teacher. (here opettajan is in genitive but functions as an object)

Because in the sentence the teacher is the subject doing the action, nominative opettaja is the correct form.

Is opettaja gender-specific, like “teacher (male/female)”, or is it neutral?

Opettaja is gender-neutral. It simply means teacher, without implying male or female.

Finnish generally doesn’t mark grammatical gender:

opettaja = teacher (any gender)
hän = he / she (same pronoun for both)

If you need to specify gender, you add extra context (e.g. miesopettaja “male teacher”, naisopettaja “female teacher”), but in most cases opettaja alone is enough.

What exactly is ääneen? What form of the word is that?

The base noun is ääni = voice, sound.

ääneen is the illative singular form of ääni. Literally it means “into (the) voice”, but in practice it functions as an adverb meaning:

out loud, aloud

So:

puhua ääneen = to speak out loud / aloud

In this sentence, ääneen answers the question “how?” – it describes the manner of speaking.

What’s the difference between ääneen and something like kovaa or kovaan ääneen?

They express slightly different nuances:

ääneen = out loud, as opposed to silently or in your head.
- Luen kirjaa ääneen. = I read the book out loud.
kovaa = loud(ly), referring to volume (how loud it is).
- Opettaja puhuu kovaa. = The teacher speaks loudly.
kovaan ääneen combines both:
- literally into a loud voice, idiomatically in a loud voice / very loudly.
- Opettaja puhuu kovaan ääneen. = The teacher speaks in a loud voice.

In your sentence, ääneen emphasizes that the teacher is not silent or whispering internally, but actually speaking audibly.

How do you pronounce ääneen? What’s the difference between ä and a here?

ääneen is pronounced approximately like:

[æː.neːn]

Key points:

ä is like the a in English “cat” or “bad”, not like the a in “father”.
The double vowel ää is long: hold it about twice as long as a short ä.
Similarly, the ee in -neen is long.

So it has two syllables:

ää-neen
with both vowels in each syllable lengthened.

What case is luokassa, and what does it tell us exactly?

luokka = class, classroom
luokassa is the inessive case, which usually corresponds to “in, inside”.

So:

luokassa = in the classroom

Other related cases (for comparison):

luokkaan (illative) = into the classroom
luokasta (elative) = out of the classroom
luokalla (adessive) = often at class, on/at the classroom area (context-dependent)

In the sentence, luokassa tells you the location where the teacher is speaking.

Could the word order change, for example to Luokassa opettaja puhuu ääneen? Would that still be correct?

Yes, Finnish word order is fairly flexible, and Luokassa opettaja puhuu ääneen is grammatically correct.

However, word order affects emphasis:

Opettaja puhuu ääneen luokassa.
Neutral: The teacher is speaking out loud in the classroom.
Luokassa opettaja puhuu ääneen.
Emphasis on luokassa: “In the classroom, the teacher speaks out loud” (maybe contrasting with somewhere else where they don’t).

By putting a word at the beginning, you highlight or contrast that element.

Could you omit ääneen and just say Opettaja puhuu luokassa? How would the meaning change?

Yes, Opettaja puhuu luokassa is perfectly correct. It just means:

The teacher is speaking/talking in the classroom.

If you add ääneen:

Opettaja puhuu ääneen luokassa.
Emphasizes that the speech is out loud, not just silently reading or thinking.

So ääneen adds the nuance of audible, out-loud speech.

Why is there no word for “the” or “a” before opettaja or luokassa? How do I know if it’s “a teacher” or “the teacher”?

Finnish has no articles (no “a/an” or “the”).

Opettaja can mean a teacher or the teacher.
luokassa can mean in a classroom or in the classroom.

Which English article you choose depends on context, not on any extra word in Finnish. For example:

In a story where the teacher has already been mentioned, you’d translate opettaja as the teacher.
In a new context, you might choose a teacher.

So in isolation, Opettaja puhuu ääneen luokassa could be:

A teacher is speaking out loud in the classroom.
or
The teacher is speaking out loud in the classroom.

Why isn’t there a pronoun like hän (“he/she”) before the verb? Could you say Hän puhuu ääneen luokassa instead?

Finnish doesn’t require subject pronouns when the verb form already shows who the subject is. The ending in puhuu tells you it’s third person singular (he/she/it/the teacher).

Opettaja puhuu ääneen luokassa.
The teacher speaks out loud in the classroom.

You can say:

Hän puhuu ääneen luokassa. = He/She is speaking out loud in the classroom.

This simply uses a pronoun instead of a noun. You wouldn’t normally use both together (no Hän opettaja puhuu…). You either name the person (Opettaja…) or refer to them with hän.